Victoria College Preparatory School s1

VICTORIA COLLEGE PREPARATORY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER February 2014 Telephone: 723468 Fax: 780596 Diary Line: 725681 Email: [email protected]

21st February 2014

Dear Parents,

As we approach the end of the first half-term of the Spring term, I write with a few notices and reminders of events.

Year 6 Production – The Golden Ticket

Year 6 are busy rehearsing for the annual production. Ticket sales so far have been limited to 4 per Year 6 family and are going well. The box-office have been told to allow any parents of Year 6 boys wishing to purchase extra tickets to do so from the 3 rd March. The whole school will be going to The Arts Centre to watch the play on either the 1st or 2nd April.

Cake Sale

The Braithwaite Cake Sale was held last week and was very well received. Thank you to all the parents who brought in cakes.

Music at VCP

This half term has been action-packed for the boys in Years 5 and 6, who participated in the House Music Competition. There were almost 300 performances across the week, with all five Houses being well represented. Our adjudicators were: Thomas Saunter, Katy Key, Helen Gunton, Peter Davis, Brent Connan, Iain George, Sue De Gruchy, Oscar Mackereth, Ernie Mallett, Carlos Perestrelo, Adrian Dixon, Rhian Davies, Rebecca Lawrence, Sarah Smith, Chris George and Emmanuelle Dumas. At the end of the competition, Diarmid emerged victorious, with Dunlop in 2nd place, Bruce 3rd, Braithwaite 4th and Sartorius 5th. Well done to all those who participated and a big thank you to our adjudicators.

Hot on the heels of the House Music Competition were our two House Music Gala Concerts, for Year 5 and 6. These were both entertaining and enjoyable events featuring a wide range of musical styles and showcasing the musical talent of VCP. Well done Year 5 and 6 musicians!

The next musical event is the annual Piano Concert, which will take place on Tuesday 18th March. Congratulations to those boys who have been selected to take part and remember to keep up-to-date with piano practice over the half term holiday!

VCP Chamber Choir were honoured to be asked to sing at the funeral of Mr. John Hibbs, who was Headmaster of VCP from 1975 to 1995. It was a very moving service and the boys sang beautifully. Thank you, Chamber Choir, for contributing to this important and respectful occasion. Jane Silvester

The Captain’s Table:

Congratulations to the following boys who have been chosen to sit at the Captain’s Table during lunch this half term. The boys are selected as a result of setting an excellent example – this could be for good manners, looking after others at lunch etc.

Year 3 Emile Blampied Lachlan Muir Harris Munns

Year 4 Joseph Baillon (twice – well done, Joseph!) Nicholas Lawrenson Charlie Hart Jonty Stratford Finn Engelbrecht-Kotze Todd Watkins

Year 5 Austin Pateman James Cushing Johnny Hopwood Ethan Toudic (twice – well done, Ethan!) Sebastian Wilkinson Andrew Gatehouse

Year 6 Elliott Christie

Jane Silvester

Parent Community Discussion Group Meetings

This half term’s Parent Community Discussion Group met on Thursday 30th January. Thank you to those who attended – it was a valuable and constructive discussion. Notes from the meeting have now been published on the VLE. The next meeting has been scheduled for Friday 21st March and invitations will be sent to the parents whose names are randomly selected shortly after the half term holiday.

Jane Silvester

Sports Report –

Football VCP have improved immeasurably as the season has progressed, with the top team remaining unbeaten in 2014. All teams are working up their respective tables and the boys are showing good dedication to improving their fitness as they look to finish strongly.

The VCP first performed well in the annual 5 a side tournament and despite being the only unbeaten side in the competition were cruelly knocked out on goal difference by 1 goal.

Football tour to Bedford

VCP had a wonderful trip to Bedford and participated in some high quality matches. In the first encounter against Bedford Modern, we won by 4-3 in a tight encounter.

On the Saturday, we were fortunate enough to play against the Reading Academy side and although we were comfortably beaten the boys showed tremendous courage and determination and certainly didn’t embarrass ourselves against a professional side.

On the Sunday VCP retained the Shield after a draw with Bedford Prep school. Although there were no goals scored in the match, it was an entertaining affair with numerous chances for both sides.

Touring Squad: J.Harrington, G.Griffin, A.Johnstone, J.Abbott, T.Watts, J.Cramsie, A.Boyle, T.Harben, J.Brown, R.Forrest, U.Hamid, P.Gouge, M.Jones, H.Dawson, D.Andrews, H.Keenan, R.Sarre, B.Purkiss

House Swim Galas

The 2014 Swim Galas were to prove an incredibly close affair with only 8 points separating the first three teams after all four galas! It was lovely that all 5 houses won a Year group for the first team too!

Bruce and Sartorius tied the first Gala of the year in Year 5. Dunlop were comfortable winners in Year 3 and Diarmid emerged victorious in Year 4. Braithwaite completed the unusual event of all houses winning by narrowly winning the final Year 6 competition. This led to a tense wait for the overall scores which were as follows:

1: Diarmid 2: Bruce 3: Sartorius 4: Braithwaite 5: Dunlop

House Photography –

A colourful array of wonderful photographs are currently on display in the hall. With 230 entries- it was not an easy or enviable task to decide on our worthy winners, as we clearly have some budding photographers in our midst. Each year group made some inspirational and creative choices for their chosen themes of colour, animals, the sea and emotions. Winners were as follows. House Photography results 2014

Overall a very high standard .The creativity shone through this year in all categories.

Year 3 Colour 1) Joe Gouzinis (Conway tower) Outstanding shot. Great 50/50 composition with a three colour contrast. The blue sky inclusion was very creative. DIARMID 2) Archie Scate (Lego and fruit) Brilliant use of colours. Imaginative and clearly took a long time to set up. DUNLOP 3) Willoughby Gleeson (blurred Lego) Fantastic use of colour in a close up. SARTORIUS Special mention goes to Riley Becker's cake - good enough to eat!

Year 4 Animals 1) Joseph Baillon (rodent and tomato) DUNLOP Excellent capture and composition. Well focused and good use of colour. 2) Alex Le Quesne (sheep and spire) BRUCE Great composition with the rule of thirds used. 3) Todd Watkins (bird hovering) BRAITHWAITE A hard shot to take but managed to capture movement against a single colour background. Special mention goes to Henry de Carteret for his dog in underpants - what a comical moment!

Year 5 Water 1) Ben Thornton (water from the outlet with Elizabeth castle background) A well thought out shot that had an interesting background and included three types of water as the main focus. The sea, the outlet and the still water capture the theme perfectly. BRAITHWAITE 2) Ben Bryon (water snaking through the wrack) . BRAITHWAITE This is well composed and really draws the eye through the photo. 3) Archie Willets (frozen capture of wave with corbiere lighthouse) Excellent 'frozen' capture. The water looks like ice and good use of well lit corbiere in the background DIARMID Special mention goes to Andrew Gatehouse for his low light shot - very difficult to take but good attempt.

Year 6 Emotions 1) Tom Layton (limpet) DUNLOP Fantastic find and composition. Great creative thinking. Simple but effective! 2) Christopher Thomas (girl in black and white) DIARMID Fantastic mood capture. Well composed and very good use of black and white to add to the emotion in the shot. 3) Oliver Wilderspin (cross at sunset) DUNLOP Interesting thinking behind the shot. The darkness and shadows in the foreground with the blacks add to the mood of the shot, as does the sunset. Special mention goes to Leon Harrison-lopez's family around ipad - a lovely natural shot but what is the girl looking at?! BRUCE Dunlop emerged as the overall winners but a big congratulations goes to all entrants and a big well done to Sartorius for having the highest overall percentage of entries. Absences - Should your son be unfortunate enough to be too unwell to come to school please call or email the school office before 9.15 so that we can keep his attendance record updated accurately. Also, a polite reminder that Victoria College Prep strongly discourages holidays during term time as any absence may affect a pupil’s academic career and reserve the right not to authorise absences if it is felt that they will have a particularly significant effect on a boy or where there have been repeated absences. In all instances permission should be requested from the Headmaster. For full details of the specific circumstances where an absence may be authorised, please refer to the ‘Leave of Absence Policy’ which can be found on the school’s VLE (www.vcp.sch.je).

I wish you all an enjoyable break and look forward to seeing the boys come back refreshed and ready to face the challenges of the next half-term.

Yours sincerely,

Russell Price Headmaster

Diary Dates

24th – 28th February Half-Term

5th March JPSSA Open Cross Country (Year 5 and 6 boys who have registered)

7th March Year 5 visit to War Horse Screening

18th March Piano Concert

21st March Parent Community Discussion Group (by invitation)

29th March JPSSA Cross Country Inter-Insular

31st March Year 6 Play “The Golden Ticket” Rehearsals All Day – Jersey Arts Centre

1st April Year 6 Play “The GoldenTicket” performance VCP Ys 4 and 5 and JCGP yr 6 watching12.30-14.45 Evening performance 19.30 - Jersey Arts Centre

2nd April Year 6 Play “The Golden Ticket” performance VCP Yr 3, JCGP & La Moye yr 2 watching 12.30-14.45 Evening performance19.30-Jersey Arts Centre

3rd April Year 6 Play “The Golden Ticket” performance Evening performance19.30 Jersey Arts Centre

4th April Bentley Photographers for Whole School Photo

10th April Open Day

11th April End of spring term - 15.00

29th April Start of summer term – 8.45

Regular Activities Monday Recorder Ensemble 12.30 – 13.00 Music Room (JS) Cross Country Club 12.30 – 13.00 VCP (BS and KB) (Years 5 and 6) Chess Club 12.30 – 13.00 3R (DR) FOP Swap Shop 14.30 - 15.30 Swap Shop Hut 1st Team Football Training 15.15 - 16.15 Heathfield (BS) (Years 5 & 6) Art Club (Years 4 and 5) 15.10 – 16.00 Art Room (SLF) Tuesday Senior Choir (Years 5 & 6) 12.30 - 13.00 School Hall (JS) Year 5 & 6 Fun Football 15.30 - 16.15 Heathfield (AD) (Alternate weeks between Colts and Reserves ) Wednesday 1St Team Fitness Club 08.00 – 08.30 VCP Gym (BS) Chamber Choir 12.30 – 13.00 School Hall (JS) Year 3 & 4 Fun Football 15.30 - 16.15 Heathfield (DR) (Alternate Weeks) Year 5 & 6 Hockey 15.15 – 16.15 Astro Pitch (JC) (Alternate weeks) Brazilian Football 15.00 onwards (Gym) (Will Partington) Thursday Chamber Music 12.30 – 13.00 Music Room (JS) (by invitation) Cross Country Club 12.30 – 13.00 VCP (BS and KB) (Years 3 and 4) iPad Club (years 3 and 4) 12.30 – 12.50 3G (CDG) Cricket (by invitation) 15.00 – 16.00 Gym (RP) Staff Meeting 15.20 – 16.30 Staff Room Friday A and B Team Football 12.30 – 13.00 (BS) Tactics Sessions Junior Choir 12.40 – 13.00 School Hall (JS) Brazilian Football 15.00 onwards Gym (Will Partington) Year 5 & 6 Rugby 15.15 – 16.15 Heathfield (BS & WW)

Year 6 Play

Play rehearsals will be held every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 3.20 in the School Hall. Boys will be informed weekly in advance when they are required to attend and until what time.

Cricket By invitation only, on various evening from 3.15 – 4.15p.m. All other school clubs commence the week beginning 7th January. Brazilian Football information will come directly from Will Partington.

Whereas the dates and times of fixtures/clubs/activities are correct at the time of printing occasionally there may be cancellations or changes of time or venue.

If an activity is cancelled a text message will be sent as soon as possible.

Your son should carry with him some 50 pence coins for the payphone. All local sports fixtures will be published on the notice board.